


Family

by KrisEleven



Series: Mithros Bless Us, Every One [7]
Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, The Song of the Lioness - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Forum: Goldenlake, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-04 01:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrisEleven/pseuds/KrisEleven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the twins are nine, Sir Alan remembers himself enough that the three of them are seated around their large dining room table, a set of candles not lighting the dark reaches of the room, eating in almost-silence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> I am completely taking advantage of every scrap of authority I have, and have written this for Goldenlake's 12 Days of Ficmas (prompt 'Candles') as well as TPE's Seven Days of Midwinter (prompt 'Family Gatherings'). This is set the year before SotL begins.

The year before, they hadn't even had a meal at Midwinter. Of course, Maude would never allow them to go a night without dinner, but their father forgot the holiday, spending it locked in his study while the twins sat alone in the formal dining room. Alanna finally huffed sometime between the soup and the venison and dragged Thom into the kitchen to eat with Maude and Coram and the other staff who didn't spend the holiday with their families. Coram got drunk and scolded, but not before telling stories of his days as a soldier, and Alanna and Thom both fell asleep at the table, warm from the kitchen fires, listening to the songs their servants sang until Coram carried them up to bed.

The next year, Alan remembered himself enough that the three of them were seated around their large dining room table, a set of candles not lighting the dark reaches of the room, eating in almost-silence. The distance between the three of them was almost laughable, but the mood leaned too far into solemn to allow it, because though they could have fit another twenty people around the table, only one was missing and her absence was all Sir Alan of Trebond could see. When dessert is finally over, Alanna and Thom bow out of the room and take themselves quietly to bed.

After Alan returned to his study to fall asleep with a miniature of his wife on his lap, Thom sneaked into Alanna's bedchamber and climbed in beside her. Perhaps tomorrow they would be permitted to eat dinner around the rough table in the kitchen, with Maude huffing about manners and Coram letting them steal all their favourites off his plate. Perhaps, then, they'll be allowed dinner with family.

  
_Blood relatives often have nothing to do with family, and similarly, family is about who you choose to make your life with._  
-Oliver Hudson


End file.
